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Western Maryland asks West Virginia to 'consider adding us' to their state

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Re: Western Maryland asks West Virginia to 'consider adding us' to their state

#51

Post by patorjk »

eatonphil wrote: post #14

> a media market based in Pittsburgh Pittsburgh, PA? On a map the western parts of Maryland seem vaguely as close to Pittsburgh as they are to Baltimore. Even if they were closer to Pittsburgh, PA why would media in Pittsburgh, PA cover events in western Maryland (since it's still kind of far away and Pittsburgh isn't that big a city)? I also don't know what they mean by "media market" being in Pittsburgh, again, if…

Using Google Map's measuring tool, Garrett County is 115km from Pittsburgh, PA, 231km from Baltimore, and 207km from DC. It'd make sense that news from Pittsburgh would be more relevant to the area.

Also, according to Wikipedia, Garrett County is part of the Pittsburgh Media Market:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pittsburgh_Media_Market

Re: Western Maryland asks West Virginia to 'consider adding us' to their state

#52

Post by eatonphil »

mlinksva wrote: post #47
eatonphil wrote: post #14

> a media market based in Pittsburgh Pittsburgh, PA? On a map the western parts of Maryland seem vaguely as close to Pittsburgh as they are to Baltimore. Even if they were closer to Pittsburgh, PA why would media in Pittsburgh, PA cover events in western Maryland (since it's still kind of far away and Pittsburgh isn't that big a city)? I also don't know what they mean by "media market" being in Pittsburgh, again, if…

Yes. The westernmost county in MD is considered part of the Pittsburgh PA media market. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pittsburgh_Media_Market

> definition of the reach of the Pittsburgh television and radio media as defined by Nielsen in a prime sense

Ah. I never understood anything to do with Nielsen. Makes sense.

Re: Western Maryland asks West Virginia to 'consider adding us' to their state

#53

Post by nradov »

lumost wrote: post #16
ilamont wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yet people regularly try to push these ideas, from the earliest days of the Union when part of New Hampshire wanted to secede and join Vermont or form a new state in the Connecticut River valley ( https://www.flowofhistory.org/the-rebellion-in-western-new-h... ) More recently, there was that expensive California idea pushed by Tim Draper, as well as a new country in the Pacific Northwest including parts of Canada and…

These stories are also a reminder that dissolution is an ever present mechanism to overcome gridlock. I wouldn't be surprised if we start seeing radical proposals to break the deadlock in the US Senate start to gain steam.

There is no mechanism for dissolution.

Re: Western Maryland asks West Virginia to 'consider adding us' to their state

#54

Post by dbcurtis »

dane-pgp wrote: post #33
dbcurtis wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because one party wants two more uncompetitive senate seats.

And the other party doesn't want people having representation at all. For the record, the popular vote percentages for the Democrats in the past 3 senate elections were: 53.0%, 58.2%, and 47.0%. That averages 52.7%, so gaining an extra two senate seats would still mean the Democrats were under-represented. (I know that the purpose of the senate is not to represent each citizen equally, I just thought it was worth poi…

The purpose of the senate is to make sure that low population regions have a voice, and that majority interests don’t trample minority interests.

To say that one party doesn’t want people to be represented at all is a ridiculous straw-man.

Re: Western Maryland asks West Virginia to 'consider adding us' to their state

#55

Post by oh_sigh »

mrtranscendence wrote: post #50

Fun fact: they would be moving from the state with the highest median household income to the state with the lowest. I suppose this would only make Maryland richer by that metric. Personally, I’d rather cut my own foot off with a rusty steak knife than live in West Virginia, which has basically nothing going for it except some decent wilderness. It doesn’t help that I have relatives there who love the confederate fla…

All the wealth in Maryland is concentrated around DC, so western Marylanders probably don't feel much connection at all to easterners. I'd imagine it is similar elsewhere - people in upstate NY probably feel a stronger connection to Vermonters than they do to NYC folk.

Re: Western Maryland asks West Virginia to 'consider adding us' to their state

#56

Post by gotoeleven »

nimbius wrote: post #44

"Western Maryland lawmakers have periodically raised concerns in the Maryland General Assembly that their part of the state is different from the rest of the state, with a more conservative political outlook" this type of political huckstering happens periodically between US states, most famously the exhausting routine of Californian politicians demanding the state be carved into a north and south (with Los Angeles c…

Yeah east Germany had free housing right? I don't get why people were always trying to cross the Berlin wall.

Re: Western Maryland asks West Virginia to 'consider adding us' to their state

#57

Post by neaden »

tut-urut-utut wrote: post #46
taylorfinley wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Population of California: 39,656,838* Population of North + South Dakota: 1,645,198* Persons per senator in California: 19,828,419 Persons per senator in the Dakotas: 411,300 Getting highly-overrepresented people to give up their overrepresentation is a hard ask. *latest US Census figures

But that’s my design. Senators were never supposed to represent population proportionally. That’s what congressman are for, senators represent a state. If you want pure proportional representation then you need to dismiss senate, and change congressional election to nation wide proportional system. Afterwards you wouldn’t even need states anymore.

States do a lot more then just vote for Federal legislators. We could have a federal election system that didn't take states into account but still had independent state laws, governors, police forces, etc.

Re: Western Maryland asks West Virginia to 'consider adding us' to their state

#58

Post by taylorfinley »

nickff wrote: post #43
taylorfinley wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Population of California: 39,656,838* Population of North + South Dakota: 1,645,198* Persons per senator in California: 19,828,419 Persons per senator in the Dakotas: 411,300 Getting highly-overrepresented people to give up their overrepresentation is a hard ask. *latest US Census figures

It's not over-representation, as the senate was never supposed to represent citizens, it was supposed to represent the states. At the time of the declaration of independence, there were some states much larger than others; Virginia had a population of ~747k, and Delaware was at ~59k.

I certainly agree that this disparity exists by-design. We can disagree on the word used to describe it, but the fact remains: For every person in a state represented by a senator's vote in the Dakotas, there is nearly 50 people in the state of California. This is ~400% the disparity you cite between Delaware and Virginia. Certainly that growth in disparity is not entirely unforeseeable by the founders. The system is functioning as intended. My point was that you aren't likely to get people to voluntarily choose to have less power.

Re: Western Maryland asks West Virginia to 'consider adding us' to their state

#59

Post by patorjk »

mrtranscendence wrote: post #50

Fun fact: they would be moving from the state with the highest median household income to the state with the lowest. I suppose this would only make Maryland richer by that metric. Personally, I’d rather cut my own foot off with a rusty steak knife than live in West Virginia, which has basically nothing going for it except some decent wilderness. It doesn’t help that I have relatives there who love the confederate fla…

Western Maryland has a pretty low cost of living. I live in the Baltimore/DC area and have co-workers who live in Frederick because they could get a large house for cheap (and 3 the counties being discussed in the article are to the west of Frederick).

If the counties were able to succeed and join WV, I wonder how many Marylanders would move out there for the low taxes.

Re: Western Maryland asks West Virginia to 'consider adding us' to their state

#60

Post by orwin »

mrtranscendence wrote: post #50

Fun fact: they would be moving from the state with the highest median household income to the state with the lowest. I suppose this would only make Maryland richer by that metric. Personally, I’d rather cut my own foot off with a rusty steak knife than live in West Virginia, which has basically nothing going for it except some decent wilderness. It doesn’t help that I have relatives there who love the confederate fla…

My genetic grandfather live in West Virginia, i'd say it is way more diverse than you think it is. I depends where you go though. People who live there are great, i thought at the time i met the only true left candidate in the US (It was before Bernie was a thing).

Back-to-land'er hippies communities are a joy to frequent: they play music every time they're not hiking, brewing, building their home or tending their garden. They also tried to do their own festival. If you want to met some of them, you have to try producer markets and talk to the guys there, or just go to a bar where music is played and talk to the musicians.

You can also participate in a home brew contest, you'll taste horrible stuff, pretty good stuff, and meet wonderful people..

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